Today’s Devotional

Discerning the Voice of God by Priscilla Shirer Day 6.

My three sons and I have a morning routine. Maybe you do too, whether you’re wrangling toddlers or teenagers or just trying to get your own self out the door in one piece. For my brood, our morning plan typically involves a strategic engagement of assignments for which each person, or at least somebody, is responsible—bed making, bathroom cleaning, dishwasher emptying, taking out the trash. You get the picture.

Now listen, I’m not saying it comes off without a hitch every day. Don’t ask me to take this illustration too far, unless you’re willing to come over and help me sort some laundry. The only thing I’m trying to say is, I don’t come up with this list of chores on the fly. That would never work.

Know how I know? Because I’ve tried that before. And trust me (or say a firm, confident, head-bobbing amen with me), it’s a recipe for chaos and frustration. 

Despite my own affinity for spontaneity and impulsiveness, I learned a long time ago that nothing—and I do mean nada—is accomplished during our mornings without a plan. Spur of the moment, flying-by-the-seat-of-our-pants operations invite complete mayhem. Only a predetermined commitment to a plan is able (or, again, at least potentially able) to hold our mornings together.

Let’s pivot here and apply this same logic to something even more important than mama’s sanity on an average weekday. Let’s talk about that key we shared a conversation about earlier—the key of surrendered obedience that leads to actually hearing from God and being able to live with the pure satisfaction of doing His will. Is anything really more important than that?

No? Then what’s your plan for doing it?

We aren’t haphazard with a lot of the things we deem important in life: our health, our retirement plan, our monthly calendar of appointments. We even enlist others to help us stay on track with some of those things—help we’re sometimes willing to pay for! So, what about our commitment to being spiritually aligned with the God of the universe and with how He wants to direct our hearts? If we don’t put an intentional resolve and strategic course of action for following Him in place, we’re basically leaving it up in the air, susceptible to the flighty whims of our circumstances and feelings. There’s simply too much eternal treasure at stake for that.

Today’s Devotional:

Day 5 of Discerning the Voice of God with Priscilla Shirer:

Obedience can be an intimidating word. Depending on our upbringing and other influences from our early life, it may invoke different emotions. For some, it conjures up odious thoughts of harsh, seemingly pointless regimens of rules and regulations that are stifling and oppressive instead of life-giving and fulfilling. For others, it seems oddly devoid of intimacy and relationship, more of a never-good- enough attempt at measuring up. And for even more of us, the word itself feels like a threat to our innate desire for independence. It bristles against the fabric of our self-reliance and autonomy.

Obedience—at least the kind that our good, loving, sovereign God requires—is neither legalistic nor lacking in affection. Although it places needed boundaries and demands on us—as in, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me” (Matt. 16:24)—each bit of instruction He gives is born out of the tenderness of His heart toward us and His desire to steer us toward His best for our lives. Obedience is not a no; it is actually His best yes. It swims in oceans of grace and leads us to freedom, wholeness, and health. It opens us up to His unbridled blessing and abundance.

The irony of obedience is like a delicate dance of trust. It may require real sacrifice from us, while somehow leading to blessing and incomparable abundance.

   • It binds us while concurrently loosing us.

   • It holds us tightly while also letting us go.

   • It redirects us only to replenish and renew us.

   • It restrains us while simultaneously releasing us.

   • It limits us while also opening up spacious possibility.

Without our intentional surrender to the former, we cannot experience the benefits of the latter—benefits that are so important and hold so much incredible promise, we can hardly afford to leave them to chance. We must plan and intentionally strategize to pursue them, to pursue obedience. If left to our flesh’s tendencies toward rebellion, we will live in a consistent state of resistance toward God and His ways.

But if we (literally) plan to obey, we put ourselves in position any day of the week to hear what He wants us to do next, and then to have Him bless us with the supernatural joy of following Him.